Washington's experts recruit 'Call of Duty' creator
28/09/2014 22:58Source: Space War
A Washington think tank is recruiting the mastermind behind the best-selling "Call of Duty" video games to help policy wonks imagine future wars America may have to fight.
Dave Anthony, whose blockbuster gaming franchise has earned billions of dollars, is among a group of writers and producers enlisted by the Atlantic Council to look at how armed conflicts might evolve in the 21st Century.
The initiative, "The Art of Future War Project," which launches next week, was born when Steven Grundman, a former Pentagon official now at the Atlantic Council, found himself impressed by the story line of a video game his son was playing.
The game, "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," depicts a cold war set in 2025 between China and the United States, with the rival powers vying for coveted rare earth elements.
"He was struck how realistic our portrayal in 'Call of Duty: Black Ops II' was of a future conflict," Anthony told AFP in an interview.
To come up with that game's plot, Anthony gathered an eclectic group that included screenwriter David Goyer, who worked on the Batman films; author Peter Singer who has written about drone warfare; and Oliver North, the retired Marine officer turned television personality who rose to fame in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s.
"You get everybody in a room like that, and all the different perspectives come together," Anthony said from his home in Bel Air, California.
"That combination was fascinating. What I would like to bring to Washington is that kind of thinking."
